Thailand's land tax collection postponed indefinitely

BANGKOK, March 13 (TNA) - A plan by the interim Thai government to collect land and buildings tax, aimed to narrow social disparity and to boost state revenues, has been postponed indefinitely to avoid more burden on people. Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha told journalists of the update on Friday, explaining that the government wants to first create public understanding properly on national tax structure, as well as sources of state revenues and spending channels. Acknowledging that land and buildings taxation is a future plan, the prime minister stressed that the issue is to be, thus, delayed for a certain period pending the government's review on the country's overall tax structure. According to the prime minister, tax money now accounts for 10 per cent of overall state revenues and the government is restructuring the national tax system to be more suitable for Thailand, especially taxes collected by local administrative organisations. The prime minister pointed out if local administrative organisations were able to collect more taxes, it would help save the central government's budget by as much as 260 billion baht annually. The prime minister conceded that taxes collected by local administrative organisations stand only over 70 billion baht annually and if they were declining, the central government would have to use state budget to support them, resulting in a drop in the central government's revenues, including those to be used for funding public investment projects. The Thai premier did not say when the planned land and buildings tax will be introduced, indicating only that tax collection in Thailand now stands at a lowest level. (TNA)